n 1985 a West Virginia high-school shop teacher named Melvin Forbes introduced a bolt-action rifle weighing less than 5 pounds to the world. Between then and 2022, Forbes handcrafted and sold more than 7,000 of those rifles and set the bar for rugged, lightweight hunting rifles so high that no other maker—factory or custom—could touch it. But as Forbes aged, he knew he could not continue, so he sold his knowledge and the rights to his New Ultra Light Arms (NULA) rifle to Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat. The company tweaked the design and now offers a modernized version that builds on Forbes’ legacy of lightweight performance.
